Beta 2.1
The success of Beta 2.0 and the popularity the mod has received thanks to gaming journalism, the PVK Team started working on the Beta 2.1 update shortly after the release of the previous version. While it didn't introduce a new character, the update was fully dedicated to maps and gameplay, introducing not one, not two, but three new game modes! To top all things, your parrot can now poop.
History
Development of Beta 2.1 was announced in February 25th 2008, exactly three weeks after the release of Beta 2.0, and it revealed new updates in several maps, as well announcing the inclusion of three new staff members: CrackaPolly, Rapid-Fire and Smile, which were in charge in coding, textures and mapping, respectively.[1] In the same announcement it was revealed that the development team was working on moving the mod into the Orage Box version of the Source Engine, also known as Source 2007, however it would only happen in an upcoming update.
On April 1st it was revealed the two new maps that would be shipping with the update: Arena and Frostbite. It was also announced that two new game modes would be introduced: Last Team Standing and Holy Grail. Last Team Standing replaces Deathmatch in Arena and it comes included with Cathedral, while Holy Grail substitutes Booty Tag and it came with Frostbite. A new version of the website pvkii.com was also released on the same day.[2]
The update was released in July 18th 2008.
Gameplay
This update saw the introduction of three game modes: Last Team Standing, Holy Grail and Objective Push. Last Team Standing becomes the defitive game mode for Arena-styled maps, providing new and creative ways to build maps for the game mode thanks to Sudden Death. Holy Grail replaces Booty Tag by improving it in every aspect: carrying the grail is easier, the carrier can now defend himself and attack others and already existing maps were updated so that problems related to Booty Tag were no longer an issue. Objective Push is a game mode programmed by CrackaPolly. While there are no official maps with it implemented, it can be accessed in the mod's SDK files and mappers can create any map based on it's rules, which are completely scripted by the mapper himself, who has no creative limitations.
Classes
All classes received updates for balancing purposes.
Skirmisher
Skirmisher's special gives to the character a bigger hit detection.
Captain
The parrot was buffed in many ways; it can no longer "fly" underwater and it cannot clip players; it can, however, poop once in a while when he's pecking players. The Captain's blunderbuss got updated spread, as well new ways to tell that the special attack is being loaded, which also got buffed, with the projectile moving slower, the explosion radius being smaller but with the damage being increased as well creating knockback.
Bersekrer
Berserker's rage was updated, with the attack speed tweaked and reduced, increased speed, both walking on it's own and while carrying a chest. The sword/axe combo's backwards attack also got a damage increase.
Huscarl
Huscarl's special was updated in several ways: like the Skirmisher, it's hit detection was increased; it's turning ability was reduced, it's speed was increased and it can now push back kegs. Armor was slighly increased and the throwing axes's speed and damage got decreased, as well the number of axes being carried by the player.
Heavy Knight
The Heavy Knight got a faster weapon switching. The longsword's damage was decreased and it no longer can get it's special meter full with one successful swing.
Archer
Archer's longbow got an bigger maximum number of arrows to carry out and the player's speed got increased with said weapon drawn. It's special attack's dammage was slightly increased, but now each arrow is spread under different directions and all three arrows no longer hit one single player.
General
All specials attacks have now different values in order to fill the special bar and also received maximum damage. Killing an enemy parrot also adds to the bar. Chest carriers' speed got slightly increased.
Maps
Cathedral and Frostbite are the new additions to the mod, introducing the Last Team Standing and the Holy Grail game mode, respectively. With the new game modes, several maps were updated with it: Arena has become a Last Team Standing map, while Fort, Saints and Temple were updated with Holy Grail.
Temple received several updates, including larger halls, new props and atmosphere to the second floor of the altar room; traps were updated with several modifications, as well kill icons for each; with the introduction of Holy Grail mode, players who trigger traps and kill enemies get a reward.
Island was substantially updated, including a boat at the Pirates' Bay which serves as an alternate path, a new spawn room for the Vikings, updated textures and 3D skybox models, ropes added in the Vikings/Pirates path, more precisely in the bridge and at the evstion path, and the castle received two iron gates to prevent anticipated attacks and keg spam. Several bugs and collision issues were also fixed.
In Forgotten, the Knights' spawn base was moved to an upper floor, and the Pirates and the Vikings' bases were also updated.
Reception
The update has received positive reactions from players, praising the new game modes, specially the over-the-top sudden deaths in Cathedral.
Controversy
A former beta tester criticized the update for taking so long to be completed and having very few content. CrazyTalk replied to his comment saying that several beta testers, including the auhor himself, were removed from the dev build of the mod due to inactvity, since in the forums' rules it was mentioned that inactive beta testers were kicked out from the team after no messages about wether or not aren't able to test. In recent times beta testers are no longer kicked out due to inactivity, as long they warn members of the dev team, either inside and outside the forums.
Changelog
New Game Modes
- Holy Grail now replaces all Booty Tag maps. Players fight as a team to take control of the grail. The grail will give the player who holds it special buffs which will also be given to nearby teammates. The counter for your team shows how many kills you need to achieve while buffed by the grail. End the round in victory when your counter reaches zero.
- Last Team Standing is a new round based game mode. Players all spawn at the beginning of the round and work together to kill off all enemies before the timer runs out. When the timer reaches zero, Sudden Death begins. There's no telling what may happen during sudden death, so you had best kill off all players on the opposing teams as quickly as possible!
- Objective Push is a new, mapper controlled game mode. Mappers will have almost complete control over this game mode, setting up objectives and time limits. Certain teams will defend while the others attack, trying to complete all of their objectives in the allotted time frame. Failure to do so will result in the defending team's victory! Any entity with an output function will be able to act as an objective, so believe me when I say mappers will have a lot of control!
Fixes
- Can No longer steal a player's weapon after killing them.
- Fixed exploitable counter attack that caused a messed up animation and easier damage.
- Players no longer sometimes spawn without weapons.
- Improved projectile prediction.
- Class scripts now encrypted.
- Can no longer move on ladders while reloading crossbow/blunderbuss
- Players killed with less health than your damage will no longer give full damage to special meter.
- Team balance no longer counts as suicide.
- HK Special no longer goes through walls. Can no longer hit players above and below the player as well.
- Parrot no longer able to swim.
- Berserker no longer loses frag when dying from berserk.
- Fixed hits sometimes not registering after getting blocked.
- fixed Heavy Knight swing sometimes cancelling after using special.
- Can no longer move while reloading crossbow.
- Fixed occassional crash in class selection menu.
- Teammates can no longer push friendly kegs to help score kills.
- Added "This weapon does not have a special" and "Cannot fire this weapon underwater" messages to certain weapons which were missing.
- Fixed throwing axes stuck in the air with looping sound
- Fixed blunderbuss reload sound continuing to play when changing weapons
- Fixed player name and health sometimes not shown in spectator GUI
- Removed cutlass lunge superjump
- Kegs and chests can't push pickups anymore
- Can no longer hurt teammates with keg/chest.
- Fixed the ability to roll kegs/chests while being dead.
- Parrots no longer remain at the end of the round to peck away at enemies.
- Main background image fixed so bow string is pulled back.
- Added delay to kill command default 5 seconds.
- Added Round Draw support to all game modes.
- Fixed problems when using SourceMod nextmap plugin with pvkii.
Additions
- Booty game mode now shows how many chests a team has under their counter, timer of the team with most chests blinks red.
- Players now given credit for suicides caused by their actions.
- Traps can now give frags to the player who enabled them.
- Added Developer Icons to scoreboard. Red - Developer, Orange - Beta Tester, Blue - Server Admin, White - Contributor
- npc_vulture added for spawning vultures in a map. Useful for Sudden Death in LTS mode.
- Mappers can now disable a team, causing only 2 teams to be selectable. Maps with this ability will no longer be annoying with auto-balance enabled.
- Muting can now be done to player text in addtion to voice.
- Fall damage can now be disabled by the mapper.
- game_end event added during final intermission. Comes in handy for server scripts.
- Teams can be shuffled by server admins. Round can be restarted with mp_restartround.
- func_territory and func_chestzone now parentable. Allows mappers to add moving territories and chest zones.
- Player spawns now parentable allowing for moving spawns.
- Added killerclass and victimclass to server logs.
- mp_filterdeadchat to allow or disallow alive players to see dead players chat
- Melee crosshair can be disabled from the multiplayer options menu now.
- Improved hit tracing for melee weapons.
- Shield Bash can now push kegs. Shield charge can push them even further.
- SourceMods\PVKII\PVKIIConsoleCommands.txt - A list of available console commands specific to PVKII.
- New loading screens with 2.1 related tips.
- Grail icon to give away the Grail's position in the map. Fades at a distance and only updates every 3 seconds.
- Added Trails for projectiles
- Flame effect at the end of Captain's barrel to show his special is loaded.
- New kill icons (chest, shield bash, etc) as well as custom death icons for map entities.
- trigger_falldeath added for mappers who have high cliffs, etc. Comes with a cool effect and death icon.
- Hud element added for picking up ammo.
- Parrots now randomly poop as they fly around the map. Pooping frequency increases under times of stress, like when pecking at enemy faces.
- New loading screens.
- Additions to Playerguide to support 2.1.
- bot_add enabled for solo testing. Doesn't move or play and can only be added when sv_lan = 1
Balance
- Huscarl and Skirmisher special dynamics changed. Both have increased hit detection with modified damage.
- Specials now have a maximum damage.
- Reduced Greatsword damage slightly, no longer achieves full special bar in one hit
- Attack speed while berserking tweaked.
- Huscarl Special turning ability reduced.
- Killing enemy parrot now adds to special bar.
- Parrots can no longer clip players.
- Captain Special changes. Use the special to load the weapon, visuals let other players know the special is loaded. Slower movement of the projectile and less explosion radius, but increased actual damage slightly and explosion pushes players back. Can also walk while reloading the special only.
- Increased maximum arrows held and picked up for Archer.
- Special Values now class specific and tweaked for balance.
- Parrot slightly buffed.
- Increased Backwards attack damage of Sword/Axe combo.
- Increased run speed of all classes, Captain slightly less than others.
- Reduced throwing axes damage slightly and amount carried/spawned with.
- Increased Archer special damage slightly per arrow, but can no longer hit one person with all three arrows.
- Block penalty damage now depends on the normal damage value of the attacker's weapon instead of hardcoded values.
- Berserking now adds some speed while holding chest/booty.
- Decreased huscarl's speed slightly when loading the throwing axe.
- Faster weapon switching for HK
- Slightly Increased speed while holding chest
- Slightly Increased berserk speed(special)
- Slightly Increased huscarl special speed
- Added little armor and hp for huscarl.
- Increased blunderbuss spread slightly.
- Slightly reduced attack speed bonus while Berserking.
- Added an ability for huscarl's special to push kegs.
- Slightly increased speed for walking archer with bow drawn.
Maps pvk_arena
- Now Last Team Standing game mode.
- Larger fighting area with places to duck behind.
- New spawning areas which cannot be reaccessed.
pvk_cathedral (NEW)
- Last Team Standing game mode.
pvk_desertruin
- Better player clipping for torches, won't limit movement.
- Can no longer hold territory while crouching in the beams underneath.
- Tweaked spawn points to balance things out.
pvk_forgotten
- Revamped Knight's base.
- Small adjustments for Viking and Pirate bases.
pvk_fort
- Now Holy Grail game mode.
- Various fixes and tweaks.
pvk_frostbite (NEW)
- Holy Grail game mode.
pvk_island
- Pirates chest zone moved to raft only.
- Main approaches to the pirate chest zone made shallower to stop slowdown.
- Edds Boat tours added to make alternate attacks to pirates from knights side.
- Additional rocks in water for sneak attacks from viking side.
- Jetty to rock to get to health quicker.
- Castle gates added to delay attacks to castle, and lower rate of keg attacks.
- Stairs in castle no longer allow ragdolls to fall through them.
- 3d sky trees polys reduced increasing FPS.
- 3d sky volcano particles made more realistic, less particles increasing FPS.
- Waterfall texture changed for better look.
- Waterfall splash effect changed for better look, and greater FPS.
- Fruit in market preplaced and set to sleep fixing FPS lag on lower systems and on map start.
- viking longship rope collision removed.
- Drawbridge clipped from chest hiding.
- Ladder and rock added to pirate escape route for easier escape.
- New Cafe Roof for more tropical look.
- Posters added in the Hubb Jubb Club.
- Sand lighted for more tropical look.
- Torches clipped.
- Changed player spawns in viking base.
- Added noattack entity on the pirate boat.
- Changed player spawns in knight base.
- Added rope near the bridge between Pirate and Viking base.
- Changed booty drop zone in Knight's base, now booty can only count when it is dropped at its spawn.
- Fixed areas where you could glitch the chest into.
- Expanded the two doors near the throne room.
- 1% more coolness added, honest.
pvk_saints
- Now Holy Grail game mode.
- Better player clipping for torches.
pvk_temple
- Now Holy Grail game mode.
- Wider hallways with taller ceilings to allow more movement.
- Various trap modifications to make them less of a hinderance.
- New models for various areas that included poor brushwork.
- New look for second level of main room to add atmosphere and avoidance of ranged.
- Hallway themes to make it easier for players to know where they're at.
- Traps now have their own kill icons, rather than skull and crossbones.
- Traps that can be triggered by a player will now reward that player with a kill for trapping an enemy.
- Torch clipping to allow players easier passing.
- Various additions for aesthetic appeal.
- Various other tweaks to increase FPS and playability.
New Console Commands
- cl_meleecrosshair: Enable/Disable melee crosshairs.
- cl_showplstatus: Show player special status.
- mp_allowrespawntime: Time in seconds from the round start that players joining may spawn in, or players who die may respawn.
- mp_filterdeadchat: Should dead player's chat be visible to player's alive.
- mp_holygrail_killmultiplier: The number of kills required to win the game is the total number of players multiplied by this value.
- mp_holygrail_maxkills: Don't allow the number of kills required to win the game to be more than this value.
- mp_holygrail_minkills: Don't allow the number of kills required to win the game to be less than this value.
- mp_killdelay: Amount of time in seconds it takes for the 'kill' command to kill the player using it.
- mp_roundtimer_lastteamstanding: Round time for Last Team Standing gamemode.
- mp_shuffleplayers: Shuffles players in the server between the three teams equally.
- mp_suddendeathtime: Time in seconds that Sudden Death Mode will last.
- pvk2_assistedsuicide_time: Time in seconds to allow player to gain frag for enemies suicide.
- updateplstatus: Updates the showing of dev status for the client issuing the command.